I’ve said once, and I’ll say it again, I love salad.

I eat a salad, in some capacity, every.single.day. Follow me on twitter, you’ll get a picture of my daily salad, almost everyday.

Where I got my love for salad, that is beyond me. I grew up eating carbs, straight, wonderful, processed white flour carbs. Mainly pasta and cinnamon rolls. My last meal would be a HUGE plate of pasta. See, I even talk about it here.

I thought, Salad = Booooring

But then I hit my late teens/early 20′s. And I fell in love with salad. Maybe my taste buds changed? Whatever happened, a switch flipped, and I haven’t gone back.

A few months ago I started making all my own salad dressings too. Once you try something in it’s homemade version, you generally don’t go back to store bought (or out of convenience you might, but not because of taste). Homemade is better, 100% of the time. In every single instance, it just is. Pasta, ice cream, bread, dressing. It’s better at home.

I had a misconception that salad dressing would be difficult to make, not difficult to make per say, but difficult to make anything that was actually GOOD. I became so accustomed to store bought, so I just assumed that was the only way to get a variety of flavors. Walking through the salad dressing isle actually intimidated me. SO many to choose from! So I’d get intimidated and just pick the standard, balsamic vinaigrette. And pay like $4 for a 16 oz bottle, RIP OFF! Balsamic doesn’t go with EVERY salad either. Which may be why so many people don’t like salad, because they haven’t had a dressing that compliments the salad ingredients…Just a thought :) I’m a salad pusher, it’s true. Ill find any way to convince you to eat more salad.

When you roast garlic is becomes slightly sweet (not like dessert sweet, but like caramelized sweet). It doesn’t have the spicy bite to it that raw garlic has. Adding a little honey to the dressing helps bring out the sweetness of the roasted garlic. This dressing is easy, delicious and cheaper then store bought. I make a batch of some sort once a week, and use it all week long. I store it in a mason jar, naturally :)

Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

2 heads of garlic, roasted and peeled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp honey

Cut the pointy top off of the garlic. Brush them with olive oil and roast them in a pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, until it is starting to turn golden brown and soft. Remove from the oven, allow to cool. Once the garlic is cool, peel the skin off. Discard the skins, save the garlic.
*Skin peels off really easily after they are roasted.

Add all the ingredients to the food processor and process until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
*If some of the skin get processed with the rest of the dressing, no big deal, it won’t change the flavor.

The salad dressing can be vegan if you sub the honey for agave. And it is dairy free, with no substitutions!

Spinach Cobb
Serves 4-6
I served this salad for father’s day. Everyone commented and said, ‘wow, this is a very pretty salad.’ Being a salad pusher, I was very happy that everyone was excited to eat salad, SCORE!

1 bag (16 oz) spinach
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 cup cheddar, shredded
3 eggs, hard boiled, diced
6 strips turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup roasted garlic vinaigrette

Toss the spinach in about 1/4 cup of the roasted vinaigrette salad dressing. Add to a large bowl and lay the toppings on top of the dressed spinach in rows. Serve immediately.
*obviously add more dressing if you want more. I don’t like my salad in a pool of dressing, although, I know people do. Totally up to you :)